


Astronomical

by mingomangomongo



Series: What Belongs To Water, Returns To Water [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mingomangomongo/pseuds/mingomangomongo
Summary: The pull was too immense, too powerful to be stopped by any mortal means. He could feel himself, following the invisible magnetism.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongdae | Chen
Series: What Belongs To Water, Returns To Water [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713997
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Astronomical

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted from aff. originally posted in december 2017

Jongdae felt as though he was floating. 

In the darkness which surrounded him and held him motionless, Jongdae seemed to be alone. Around him, there was only silence, deafening in the darkness. It was as though the lack of sound was actually all of the sounds in the universe, rising into a self-destructive crescendo at the very end.

For a few short moments, it stayed that way – as though he was floating in place, listening to the sound of silence. 

And then he felt the _pull_. 

It started as something gentle, a light but insistent tug that seemed to pull at all of him but none of him at the same time. Jongdae was able to ignore it at first, the tug little more than an irritation, an itch that he was unable to scratch. It was something bearable, something small. 

As things will do, however, it grew, and it grew, pulling at him all the while – in which direction, Jongdae couldn't have said. The pull came from everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time, surrounding him without being near him. 

The pull was immense, too powerful to be stopped by any mortal means. He could feel himself, following the invisible magnetism. It was like falling, if he could fall up and yet down at the same time; following a pull that was astronomical in directions that left him confused. He couldn't have said where he was going, or what it was that pulled him – he was, after all, dead.

_Liarna ke zjrnhul._

The words had barely slipped past his ears, uttered by a breathy voice that Jongdae didn't recognize, before the feeling of being pulled in multiple directions was gone. Jongdae was falling, the pull of gravity and something even stronger latching onto his body with greedy talons and dragging him down. Everything around him seemed to be moving up rather than down, as though he was the only thing that was affected by the force of gravity; and perhaps he was. 

_Liarna ke zjrnhul._

Jongdae struck the surface of frothy waters and sank under, pulled further still. His eyes which had closed upon impact fluttered open to look up through the waters at the nighttime sky as he drifted toward blackened depths, another darkness which would gladly swallow him. Somewhere in the world above, Kyungsoo would certainly be on his way, riding to save the hostages that they would have rescued together, if not for the attack.

_Ride swiftly, deihal._

Jongdae's lips spread in the tiniest hint of a smile, and his eyes slid shut once more. The blackness had wrapped around him, the dim light of the surface already extinguished by the depths. There was nothing else for him to look at above. 

His body settled on the stones that layered the river bottom, the gentle currents rippling over him and tugging at his hair and clothes. Jongdae lay still, his consciousness slipping away and leaving him still. The only motion that his prone figure made was that caused by the playful fingers of the currents that drifted over him. 

* * *

He woke on the bank of the river, soaked to the skin but with even breath, dapples of the morning sunlight stretching through the leaves of the tree he lay under to gently splay over his form. Jongdae carefully pushed himself up to a seated position, wincing at the ache in his neck and the sting in his abdomen.

He had been stabbed.

With shaking hands and a hammering heart, Jongdae slowly pulled up his shirt. The only trace of the fatal wound he had suffered was a long, pale white scar, smooth to the touch when his fingertips passed over it. 

"Am I—am I dead?" he wondered into the cheerful morning atmosphere, gazing down at the fast-moving river. 

"Not anymore." 

Jongdae twisted around and fell backward in one fluid, embarrassing movement. The young man behind him looked far from impressed as he sheathed his longsword and extended a hand. 

"Hold on. Who are you?" demanded Jongdae, leveling a look filled with distrust at the stranger. 

"My name's Baekhyun. Son of Zephura, and all that? Doesn't ring any bells? Okay. Well, long story short, I'm the son of the son of the sea god and I'm the guy who got sent to help you get back to your... guy. Husband? Lover." Baekhyun fished a paper out of one of the bags that hung from his belt. "Lover."

Legends were only stories, but not all stories are lies. 


End file.
